


Who Wants to Live Forever

by coffeeandcas



Series: Tumblr Prompts [5]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angel Powers, Angel Wings, Character Death, Guardian Angels, M/M, Old Age, Old Dean Winchester, Protective Castiel, Young Dean Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-03-19
Packaged: 2018-10-07 21:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10369446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeeandcas/pseuds/coffeeandcas
Summary: AU: Castiel is sent to earth to watch over a human, Dean Winchester, throughout his life and keep him safe from harm. He's to keep his distance, and is not to reveal who he truly is.At the end of Dean's life, as he lies in a hospital bed alone, Castiel comes to him and Dean just has one question at his lips: "Are you an angel, Cas?"





	

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this Tumblr prompt: Inspired by your All For You fanfic, I imagine a world where Dean's just a normal boy & Cas' a real angel who's always there for Dean when he needs help or just someone to comfort him over his tragic moments in life. The last time they met was when Dean started his own family. A very long time passed, they meet and talk again in a hospital room where Dean spends his last day on earth with Cas making him wonder how come Cas still look the same as the last time they met? "Are you an angel, Cas?"

> _Here you go, hope it’s OK :)[AO3 Link](http://archiveofourown.org/works/10369446)_

On January 24th, 1979, Castiel is sent to earth. He isn’t happy about it, and grumbles to himself as he settles into his new vessel, feeling cramped and insignificant on a celestial scale, and noticing the cramp in his shoulders as he folds his glossy gold wings close to his back. He resigns himself to a miserable, meagre existence keeping watch over some bratty human, and sulks until much later that evening when he’s standing on a street corner alone, wondering if he should just wait there until something happens. A moment later, something does happen. As a single human soul comes to life, Castiel can’t hold in a gasp; he watches everything around him fill with colour and his breath is punched from his chest. Somewhere in the world, somewhere in a hospital nearby, Dean Winchester’s mother has just given birth and Castiel knows why he’s here. Dean. Dean is the reason he’s here.

When Dean is ten, he falls off his bike quite spectacularly. But the most spectacular thing of all, is that the car which is about to hit him suddenly finds itself ten feet further forwards, and Dean ends up sprawled on the tarmac, in tears but mostly unharmed. When he looks up, a dark-haired man in a suit and a trench coat is smiling and holding out a hand to help Dean to his feet. He stands up, barely as tall as the man’s broad chest, and the grazes on his knees suddenly don’t seem so bad. He looks down at his bike, then up again, but the man is gone.

When Dean is thirteen, he’s bullied by some boys at school. After class one day, they drag him down an alley while he’s walking home, three of them who are so much older and bigger than him, and one of them pulls a fist back to punch him in the face for daring to talk back when they called him names. A shadow falls over them, they all turn to see a silhouette of a man standing at the end of the alley, and suddenly all three boys are sprawled on the floor and Dean finds his arm taken firmly as he’s led away to safety. As he wipes tears of fright from his eyes and feels his heart rate return to normal, he turns to thank the man but he’s gone. The boys never bother Dean again.

When Dean is eighteen, the love of his life dumps him for his best friend, and Dean heads to the nearest bar and gets properly drunk for the first time. He rants and raves to a dark-haired man in a trench coat who looks vaguely familiar, a man who just sits quietly and listens and makes sympathetic, understanding faces at just the right moments. When Dean suddenly bolts for the door to vomit up the contents of his stomach, the man appears behind him to rub  his back and hand him a bottle of water. When he looks up to say thank you, he finds he’s alone.

When Dean is twenty-one, he gets hit head-on by a truck while driving home from work one evening. The car is wrecked, completely, and the paramedics are in shock when Dean walks away without a scratch. He’s overheard on the phone, telling his girlfriend through relieved tears that he’s sure someone is watching over him, and that he knows he sounds crazy but he’s sure he saw someone in the rearview mirror, someone sitting in the backseat of the car just seconds before the truck hit, someone with messy dark hair and soul-searching blue eyes. The paramedics reassure him that he was alone in the car, and that nobody else was hurt.  

When Dean is thirty-three, he gets married to a wonderful woman on a beach at sunset. Castiel stands at the back, and smiles as they say their ‘I do’s’. The woman is a good person; Cas can see her soul. She will care for Dean, keep him safe from harm, and they will build a life together that will make others around them weep with envy. Later that year, they have a child, a daughter, and Castiel watches them leave the hospital and waves at Dean as they walk past. They exchange warm smiles, and Dean has never looked so proud.

Castiel watches Dean through the windows of his home from time to time. Just to be sure that he’s happy, healthy, and surrounded by love. And when he’s satisfied, and has had his fill of watching the beautiful man with the stunning wife and incredibly charming children, he retreats again for a while. Dean doesn’t need him any more, he knows this. So it takes him a while to realise the truth as to why he keeps coming back. Dean may not need Castiel any more, but Castiel needs Dean. Needs his quiet presence in the background, needs to know he’s there and that he always will be. Until the next time his soul calls to Castiel.

The next time comes around all too quickly, in Castiel’s eyes. The years have passed ageing Dean, and his family have grown up and flown the nest and he’s only got a very short time left on earth. Which means, in turn, so does Castiel.

“Castiel? Your name is Castiel, isn’t it?”

Dean’s voice is low and weak, and it’s a struggle for him to turn his head. The man’s name had come to him just as he opened his mouth to say hello, and the man nods and walks to the edge of the bed slowly, resolutely. Castiel has visited him during the nighttime hours, which is the time that Dean struggles the most. The hospital is quiet; the only noise in the room is the gentle beep of the monitors and the dry rasp of Dean’s lungs drawing breath. He can’t sleep, the drugs cause insomnia and the pain medication isn’t quite strong enough to take off the edge. Castiel knows this, and this is the reason he chooses his time. Dean’s hair is still thick, but grey and brittle. His bones are visible beneath the hospital gown, his body weak and emaciated, and his skin is paper thin and wan from all the drugs. Dean’s eyes still sparkle, just a little, and his smile still holds a whisper of it’s once bright confidence. He closes his eyes as Castiel approaches, looking at peace for the first time in months. His hand inches towards the edge of the bed, and Castiel doesn’t hesitate to take it. When Dean opens his eyes, he studies Castiel’s face carefully with a strange longing in his emerald eyes, and an even stranger smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

“It was you all along, wasn’t it? You’ve always been there, haven’t you?” Dean connects the dots with a smile. “The years have been kind to you, Cas.” He whispers, and Castiel smiles, clasping Dean’s frail hand with both of his. “In fact, you haven’t changed one bit. How can that be?”

Castiel just smiles down at Dean, softly, knowing the man understands on some level. Whether or not he will figure it out…

“I’ve wondered something for a long time, Cas. Will you indulge an old man with the truth?”

Castiel nods. He will do anything for Dean, especially now. When he’s so close to the end of his life that Castiel can feel his energy waning, sense his resignation and acceptance, and when he’s the only person Dean has left in the world.

“Are you an angel, Cas?”

Castiel doesn’t answer. Dean’s breath is fading, the machines are starting to cry out in low fear, and Cas silences them with a wave of his hand. Dean’s eyes are staring into his, but something is wrong. He isn’t as focused on Cas as he was, and the smile playing at his lips speaks of memories and an old, soul-deep happiness.

Castiel leans down and presses his lips to Dean’s, and the man breathes his last into the angel’s mouth. His lips are cold on Dean’s, his hand warm as it clasps the man’s for the last time, and Cas closes his eyes as tears spill down his cheeks. He doesn’t know why he’s crying. It feels like barely an hour has passed since Dean came screaming into the world, and the man has lived a full, happy life; Castiel could not have hoped for more for his charge. Now, in the twilight of Dean’s years, Castiel’s duty is to grip him tight and take him over that line, and raise him up to Heaven, and it’s not something to be sad about. Dean will spend eternity in the care of the angels, a good man, and he will be safe and cared for and loved more than he will ever know.

Castiel pulls away, just an inch; the life has left Dean’s eyes and the glittering emerald gaze is staring straight through Castiel to a point a million miles behind him. What Castiel doesn’t know, and will never know, is that as their lips met Dean didn’t close his eyes; he couldn’t bring himself to. As Cas kissed him, Dean could suddenly see his wings, arching high above their heads, and the shimmering gold and bronze and glittering stardust filled Dean’s vision as his soul left his body behind. And at his lips, a different smile now plays there. It’s the smile of a man who finally knows his purpose in life: to be loved by an angel.

**Author's Note:**

> Customary tumblr plug: <http://coffeeandcas.tumblr.com>. Got a fluffy/angsty Destiel prompt? Send it to me and I'll do my best to fill it!


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